Lewis Hamilton on a Hat-Trick

He won back-to-back races in Malaysia and Bahrain. How about a three-in-a-row at the Chinese Grand Prix?

The first night race at the Sakhir circuit turned out to be an absolute thriller, with different engine settings, tyre strategies and a safety car at the very end all providing fireworks. In a way it was a proper justification of the 2014 rules. Mercedes have the proper measure of every other team on the F1 grid this year and that only means an early title fight between Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg. The latter bounced back from his second-place finish in Malaysia to take pole, but his British teammate got the jump at the start and made good use of it. Mercedes then split their two strategies, setting up a showdown between its drivers on different tyres at the end. Hamilton had an advantage here, building a lead which was promptly blown away by the safety car caused by Pastor Maldonado’s twin-tusk Lotus overturning Esteban Gutierrez’s Sauber. Even so, he held on to the charge from Rosberg to earn a well-deserved victory.

The very fact that Mercedes only asked its drivers to bring both cars home without dictating the order – and leaving them free to race – must be applauded.

Podium for Force India: Sergio Perez brought home Sahara Force India’s only second-ever podium in Formula One, recreating history that was first made in Belgium in 2009. That year Giancarlo Fisichella had finished second at Spa, behind Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen. This time around it was only a third-place finish for Perez – and Force India – but being the ‘best of rest’ is indeed commendable.

But a little more perspective here: does this imply long-term form for the Indian F1 team or was it a flash-in-the-pan moment for them? It needs to be considered that out of the top-five cars finishing in the Bahrain GP, four were powered by Mercedes. While their main team is up ahead on the grid, Force India’s main competition comes from Williams and a resurgent Red Bull (powered by Renault). Williams have been faltering for two races running and Red Bull are still dogged by reliability problems, given how Sebastian Vettel struggled for pace once again. However the four-time consecutive champions will be pressing hard with their development and there lies Force India’s challenge. Can they counter the vast resources of Red Bull? Probably not. They would do well to enjoy this run of form as long as they can!

Ferrari in Trouble: A lot has been going on at Ferrari given how poor they were in Bahrain. Fernando Alonso and Raikkonen did manage to finish 9th and 10th respectively, but that is not where the Scuderia wants to be. The Italian racing giant is a very proud company and this result was simply not good enough, considering the ease with which they were overtaken by cars that finished ahead of them. It made them only the fifth-best team on display and it cost team principal Stephano Domenicali his job. Whether his replacement – the inexperienced Marco Mattiacci – is able to turn around their fortunes remains to be seen.

Mercedes to make it four-in-a-row: Barring reliability issues or rain, Mercedes are expected to cruise to victory in China. There are two very long straights at the Shanghai circuit where their power unit will be optimally used: a bonus for other Mercedes-powered teams as well. At most, it remains to be seen whether it will be Hamilton or Rosberg finishing first. The former is still lagging behind his teammate, more so after Daniel Ricciardo’s appeal against exclusion from the Australian GP was turned down. He needs another win to keep the balance going into Europe. Rosberg meanwhile will want to bounce back from two second-place finishes in a row.

The question is: what will be the order behind them? Can Williams make good on their promise and finally deliver? Will Red Bull finally find some pace for Vettel and give him a good car to compete with his new teammate, let alone Mercedes? Will Force India reprise their podium performance? Behind the two Mercedes cars, the 2014 Formula One season has been quite unpredictable so far and the trend looks to continue this weekend in China.